‘I definitely could do it:' Carli Lloyd getting serious about NFL career

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It started out as a goof. It may be turning into a second career.

When video of U.S. women’s national team star Carli Lloyd nailing a 55-yard field goal at Eagles practice last week went viral, there was a lot of joking about how the Delran, New Jersey, native and two-time Olympic gold medalist could one day become an NFL kicker.

Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Now? The 37-year-old Lloyd is seriously considering it.

Lloyd told Gregg Murphy of NBC Sports Philadelphia Tuesday night during the Phillies broadcast that she can “definitely” kick in the NFL.

No woman has ever played in the NFL.

“This totally took me by surprise,” Lloyd said. “I know the power of social media, I get that, but I just casually brought my boots to Eagles practice, did a few kicks, nailed a 55-yarder on my first try and next thing I know everything’s blowing up, and I was laughing about it with my husband at first, but now I’m sort of entertaining the idea.”

A 55-yard field goal is pretty impressive. There have only been five that long in Eagles history — two by current kicker Jake Elliott and one each by Caleb Sturgis, David Akers and Tony Franklin.

There was no opposing rush obviously, but Lloyd was also kicking toward the narrow goalposts that Justin Tucker — the most accurate kicker in NFL history — was using during Eagles-Ravens joint practices.

“I think I definitely could do it with the right practice and the right technique and get my steps down and figure all that out,” she told Murphy. “But I don’t want to go in there blindly. I want to actually attempt to do it (the right way), but I know that I definitely could do it, because anything I set my mind to do I can do it and I actually do kick balls for a living. So, yeah, it’s all about the technique, and we’ll see what happens, but I’m now entertaining the idea.”

Here are the five most notable NFL players from Delran High School (so far):

1. Alex Lewis: Lions’ fifth-round pick out of Wisconsin in 2004, the linebacker spent five years with the Lions and played in 52 games.

2. Tony Sacca: Set numerous passing records at Penn State and was the Cards’ second-round pick in 1992.

3. Nate Hemsley: Linebacker spent five years with the Oilers, Cowboys, Dolphins and Panthers from 1997 through 2001 as an undrafted free agent out of Syracuse.

4. Bill Duff: Was an All-American wrestler at Delran and went on to spend a couple years with the Browns and also played in the XFL, World League and Arena League before hosting the show Human Weapon on the History Channel.

5. Todd Lowber: Didn’t play football at Delran, but he was a state Group 2 champion in the long jump, high jump and 100-meter dash and went on to win the NCAA Division 3 high jump title for Ramapo. But he spent time on the practice squads of several teams in 2007 and 2008 before a brief stay in the CFL.

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